Morality And Religion Debate Essay, Research Paper

In an organized faith argument, Alan Dershowitz and Alan Keyes contended many issues on faith and morality. Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard jurisprudence professor, believed that & # 8220 ; morality can be maintained without religion. & # 8221 ; He besides stated that it must be maintained without faith because times have changed. He said that if faith is non separated from province it could hold terrible harm, such as the Crusades and the Holocaust. Dershowitz believes that there is a difference between morality and faith. When people are moral without faith, they are being virtuous on their ain, non because they are afraid of God. He stated that faith should non dwell of a Cost-Benefit Analysis. Alan Keyes, a former Republican presidential campaigner, stated that faith sets the criterion for what & # 8217 ; s moral. Keyes argued & # 8220 ; power merely finally respects another power, & # 8221 ; and Martin Luther King Jr. was non a sermonizer by accident. Dershowitz besides stated that non everything in the Bible should be believed word-for-word, even George Washington said & # 8220 ; indulge faith with caution. & # 8221 ; Keyes believed that if province and faith should be separated, so why does the Declaration of Independence contain so much about faith? Alan Dershowitz and Alan Keyes would hold argued infinitely about faith & # 8217 ; s function in society if there were non a moderator to halt them.

Religion and morality exist together in parallel harmonizing to Alan Keyes. Alan Dershowitz stated that if faith and morality are non separated, it could hold negative discourse. James Fowler followed Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erickson when choosing the phases to his development of religion across the life span. These three work forces all selected different ways to look at faith and morality. Keyes believed that morality could non be without faith. He stated that God is the Godhead, and he questioned should we trust on the voice of the people above God. Dershowitz said, in return, that people are non moral if the exclusive ground for them making it was to acquire to heaven. Dershowitz stated & # 8220 ; making the right thing because it is the right thing is more powerful than making it because person higher than you says so. & # 8221 ; Fowler & # 8217 ; s theory accents on the signifier of religion, non on a peculiar belief system. He believed that religion could be spiritual or non-religious, such as God, scientific discipline, or humanity. Throughout his six phases, he links faith ( religion ) with morality, and how a individual becomes progressively moral as they grow older and larn more about religion. The relationship between faith and morality has existed throughout all clip, and it has cost many mindless deceases and wars. The Crusades were a major illustration of how faith can be viewed negatively in political relations. Dershowitz believed that if the Crusades were right, why were at that place non counter-Crusades? Keyes retorted that everyone has to be responsible and accountable. He believed that the atrocious things done in the name of faith were merely our universe & # 8217 ; s fallen nature. Furthermore, Dershowitz believed that the Bible was a great beginning for homophobia, sex inequality, racism, and egoism. Dershowitz and Fowler believed that the Bible is one beginning of morality, non the merely. Alan Keyes avoided the reply, and he said that his morality comes from the Declaration of Independence. When it states & # 8220 ; all work forces are created equal, & # 8221 ; that is what he follows. I found the argument and Fowler & # 8217 ; s phases

to be interesting beginnings on the relationship between morality and faith.

The public blames many of its jobs on the nexus between faith and morality, but society besides praises faith and morality for its assisting in get the better ofing troubled times. Alan Dershowitz stated that the & # 8220 ; combustion of enchantresss and executing of homophiles & # 8221 ; should be credited to religion being linked to morality. He besides believed that the Bible is non a safe agency for judging people, and if it were, so we would non hold evolved as people plenty to gain that inequality is incorrect. Dershowitz stated that people should non be judged by what they believe in, but how moral they are and how they conduct themselves in society. The opposing position, stated by Alan Keyes, suggests that faith and morality together have helped people through unsmooth times, such as bondage. He said that if there were non the spiritual and moral people, such as the 1s who ran the Underground Railroad, so society would non hold made it through those times. He besides suggested that if people did non hold faith, what would they hold on to? He besides stressed that if God & # 8217 ; s voice were non followed, so the people would non hold been able to get away those difficult times. Religion and morality are of import in the populace, but it is besides necessary to understand that everyone has different beliefs. These different beliefs can be used for good in the populace, through morality, or they can be used negatively.

My positions were tainted after seeing the argument on organized faith. Before the picture, I did non see much of a point of dividing faith and province. I did non understand why it was necessary until Alan Dershowitz started naming off the calamities caused by maintaining faith and morality together. The Bible can be quoted from about every place, and I feel that if there was the power of the province behind the negative side of the Bible it could take to fatalistic effects. Alan Keyes did non look to hold much of an statement on this because there is non much of an statement to hold. The worst wars in history were caused because the leaders were following their faith. Adolf Hitler believed that Jews were bad people because of his faith, and with the power of the province behind him, executed many guiltless people. Alan Dershowitz & # 8217 ; s positions made the most sense to me because it is with the times, and I felt that Keyes was merely seeking to keep on to past beliefs that the Bible is the merely right. When Keyes stated that & # 8220 ; power merely finally respects another power, & # 8221 ; I felt that was really incorrect. Power comes from wisdom and larning what is moral and immoral. I besides believe that morality is different than faith. Morality is when you do something because it is right, non because person higher is traveling to judge you. Another strong point of Alan Dershowitz, was the usage of illustrations when faith and morality were connected and what happened. The Holocaust and the Crusades are hideous illustrations of when the Bible has gone incorrectly. Unfortunately, at that clip, the people were non cognizant of how atrocious it was, and it caused many deceases. Today, we are more witting of what is immoral, and we have learned non to accept what is blatantly incorrect merely because a higher power is behind it. I believe that the Bible should be used in certain state of affairss, such as to lift hopes among the drab, but it should non be used to keep a 21st century authorities & # 8217 ; s morality.